There can be another side to being in your own company: the idea of solitude.

And sometimes when life gets over-busy and over-noisy, there’s a lot to be said for being able to snatch a little bit of ‘me time’, to sit quietly by yourself, or to do something without the distractions and demands of others around you.

Having said this, if you’re feeling lonely it’s going to be pretty tricky to convince yourself that it’s actually a good thing.

In that case, small steps are probably the answer.

Even a couple of words exchanged with a shop assistant can count towards your ‘5 a day’ social interactions.

In the same way that you should really eat five portions of fruit or veg each day, aim to get to the point where you go to bed at night having swapped a sentence or two with a handful of people – even if they’re only fleeting contacts.

Satellite TV seems a pretty clever system. The satellite for Sky TV in the UK, for example, sits 22,000 miles above the equator in a geostationary orbit, but actually it has no idea whether your house is receiving its signal or not. The same signal is blasted out everywhere and it’s the satellite receiver in the house that selects which bits of what you’re allowed to get, according to the package that you paid for.

The thing is, you’re a bit like that satellite sometimes. Not quite as high in the sky, admittedly, but you’re almost certainly transmitting signals wider than you like to think.

People usually know when you have a low mood day, you know. Their receiver picks up your signal even though you may not know you’re transmitting.

The trouble is, others may end up getting a faulty picture. They might think you’ve got something against them, or that you’re being ‘off’ with them.

What we need is the equivalent of a ‘Do Not Adjust Your Set’ thingy. Hanging a sign around your neck isn’t a good look. But the occasional ‘Sorry, I’m just having a bad day’ can work wonders.

To some extent you can’t help your mood ‘leaking’ if you’re feeling low. You might (as I did for many years) try to wear a mask, to pretend to the world that absolutely nothing is wrong. But that doesn’t stop those who know you well picking up little signals.

The trouble is, those little signals can be misinterpreted and it’s all too easy for the people who are close to you to believe that you’ve somehow got it in for them when actually you’re fighting to keep in your own bad thoughts.

So why don’t we just own up? Why don’t we tell people ‘Sorry, I’m just feeling awful at the moment’?

It could be for lots of reasons. Maybe we don’t want to bother them. Maybe we’re embarrassed. Perhaps we feel they might judge us. Lots of reasons.

The thing is though, proper friendship is about letting others in and swapping your inner (if not always your innermost) thoughts.

How good do you feel when someone who you care about truly takes you into their confidence?

Exactly.

Opening up to someone close to you isn’t a selfish thing to do. It’s actually just the opposite. You’re showing you trust them and demonstrating that you value them.